This observation was made by Ken Henshaw during the house meeting of Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform (NDCBP) and its associates, volunteers and other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) held at the Oroworukwo Town Hall, Port Harcourt on February 2, 2010.

He noted that the security vote syndrome is not a recent development in government budget. “Ordinarily the security vote is meant to be a pool of funds to be used in maintaining public order and security. Before now, it used to take up a minute percentage of the yearly appropriation. However, in the past few years, it has acquired notoriety, as it is often propelled above other social and capital provisions. The executive in all tiers of government have wide discretional powers over how these funds are spent”, he explained.

Henshaw, who chaired the meeting pointed out that budget monitoring, has become a key focus for citizens groups in developing counties seeking political accountability and responsible government.
Continuing, he told the gathering that one of the essential ways of ensuring that the broad spectrum of citizens, in particular the poor and vulnerable groups in society, get a fair share of public revenues is through the monitoring of government budget, adding that such monitoring can also be an effective way of ensuring that vital sectors of society and the economy do not suffer neglect.

He further said that the idea of civil society participating in the budget process is gaining grounds in the country, stressing that such participation is anchored on various principles including the 1999 constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria (section 14:2), which makes elaborate provisions for citizens participations in governance a:(Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria turn whom government derives all its powers and authority, b:(by the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government, and c:(the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured. “there is no doubt that issue of budgeting and its implementation will be cardinal to the survival of democracy in Nigeria. Nigeria’s history is replete with the collapse of previous democratic experiments on account of fiscal indiscipline citizens with government”, he stressed.
He therefore said that the involvement of civil society in the process remains a sure way of not only putting elected public officers and civil servants on their toes, but also in averting a relapse into the kind of fiscal chaos and total absence of grievance that has always, provided ready excuse for military political adventures, as in the past.
 

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